


will you stay with me my love, for another day?

by amaanogawa



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Shinigami, Angst, KuroDai Weekend 2017, M/M, Reincarnation, Shinigami, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-25
Updated: 2017-08-25
Packaged: 2018-12-19 21:21:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11906448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amaanogawa/pseuds/amaanogawa
Summary: “Are you a Shinigami?”The man raises his brows, clearly surprised. “What makes you think that?”“You appeared out of thin air, you’re dressed in all black, you have a notebook with my name in it that tells you I’m sick, and you said that it was my time.”“…alright, I guess I was a bit obvious, but in my defense you’re not supposed to be able to see me. And the black is a personal choice, really.”Kurodai Weekend 2k17, Day 1| August 25: Spirits ( Shinigami AU |Yokai and Exorcist AU)





	will you stay with me my love, for another day?

**Author's Note:**

> _"will you stay with me my love_   
>  _for another day?_   
>  _'cause I don't want to be alone,_   
>  _when I'm in this state._   
>  _will you stay with me my love?_   
>  _'til we're old and grey._   
>  _'cause I don't wanna be alone._   
>  _when these bones decay..."_
> 
>  
> 
> _run - daughter_

“Excuse me, it’s time to take your blood.”

Daichi glances towards the door as it rolls open, a nurse in pale blue scrubs and a white lab coat stepping into the room. He smiles at her and extends the arm without his IV. Green-yellow bruises pool in this crook of his elbow, still healing from when they last drew blood. It’s an accessory that he has been wearing for years now, just like his hospital gown and the needle in his other arm.

“Sure,” he says with a smile. “Be my guest.”

The nurse busies herself with the usual vitals assessment. Measuring his temperature, sticking the heartrate monitor on his index finger, taking his blood pressure. Daichi barely even notices the prick of pain as the needle is inserted in his arm anymore, instead he’s staring out the window at a flock of blackbirds taking flight in the distance. Daichi has always liked birds. Something about their freedom to go wherever they wish to go, soaring high in the air by their own ability, is enviable to him. He is a bird with clipped wings, stuck in this cage of pale green walls and the smell of antiseptic. It’s a quick process, and the nurse is already cleaning up her supplies by the time Daichi snaps out of his thoughts.

“How are you feeling today?” The nurse asks, flipping through the chart at the foot of his bed. “I understand you had some difficulty breathing yesterday.”

“Yes, it’s better today.”           

“Chest pain?”

“Around a 3 for now.”

“Good to hear. Well, I’ll be back to check on you in a few hours.”

“Thank you.”

The door clicks shut behind the nurse steps out, and Daichi returns to staring absently out the window. The days pass by, just like this. He feels as though his time has stopped, even as the rest of the world continues turning on its axis.

Suddenly, it’s as if the space between his bed and the window starts shimmering, streaks of movement pooling into a single point, a whirlpool of nothingness, and a pale hand is appearing from out of nowhere. Then an arm, and an entire body follows. A tall man steps out of the shimmering air, with piercing golden eyes and a head of messy black hair. He’s clothed in all black- black hoodie, black jeans, and thick black boots.

“There we go,” he huffs, brushing himself off. The man pulls a black leather-bound notebook out of his pocket. “So, what do we have here…Sawamura Daichi, 22 years old, congenital heart disease.”

Glancing up at Daichi, he raises his brows in acknowledgement. “And a pretty face, no less. That’s a shame, for it to be time so soon.”  
  
“Uh, thank you?” Daichi answers, less taken aback than he feels that most people would be after seeing a man appear out of thin air in the middle of their hospital room.

The man freezes, golden eyes blinking owlishly in bewilderment. Daichi frowns, wondering what on earth the man could possibly be bewildered about. It’s not like Daichi was the one who waltzed out of a magic portal into his private space.

“Are- are you talking to me?”

“Well, yes.”

“You can see me.”

“Yes?”

Stunned, the stranger clothed in black stares back at Daichi for a few moments before reaching up to rub at the back of his neck sheepishly.

“Okay, well this is awkward. I apologize for, uh-”

“Magically appearing in my room and calling me good looking?” Daichi laughs before tilting his head in thought. “Are you a Shinigami?”

The man raises his brows, clearly surprised. “What makes you think that?”

“You appeared out of thin air, you’re dressed in all black, you have a notebook with my name in it that tells you I’m sick, and you said that it was my time.”

“…alright, so I guess I was a bit obvious, but in my defense you’re not supposed to be able to see me. And the black is a personal choice, really.”

“When?” Daichi asks, a cough bubbling out of his throat. He holds up a finger as his body starts shaking with deep, wheezing coughs. The man looks concerned, but only takes half a step forward before freezing in place. The coughing fit subsides after a few minutes, and Daichi takes a few deep breaths before continuing. “When am I going to die? Are you taking me now?”

“No, uh,” the man’s eyes shift between Daichi’s face and anywhere else. Daichi thinks the shade of shimmering gold is oddly hypnotizing. “Listen, I’ve never encountered anything like this before. I don’t know what the protocol is. You’re just…you’re being awfully calm about all of this. Most humans would be more, I don’t know, scared? Aren’t you scared?”

Daichi’s response is a wry smile, because he isn’t scared. He has not been scared of dying for many years now. It’s simply an inevitability, a mysterious mark on his imaginary calendar. “I’ve known I was going to die since I was 7. The doctors gave me 5 more years. I’ve lived triple that. The surprising thing isn’t that it’s my time, it’s that it has taken this long for it to finally come.”

The stranger stares at Daichi, scrutinizing, before huffing a sigh. His eyes are sad, filled with too much emotion for a literal god of death.

“Three days.” He says softly, mouth curling into a frown. “In three days, your heart is going to fail.”

“Oh,” Daichi whispers. His heart beats weakly in his chest. He closes his eyes, leans back against his pillow and takes three shuddery breaths. “Oh.”

 

* * *

 

 

**Day One.**

 

“Are you going to stay in that corner the whole time?”

Kuroo chews on his lip worriedly, arms crossed tightly across his chest, before taking a few nervous steps towards Daichi’s bed.

“I’m freaked out, okay? Interacting with our humans has never been an option. This has never happened before.”

He looks like a terrified cat, Daichi thinks bemusedly, the way his shoulders are raised, tense, as if ready to bolt at any moment. Daichi reaches towards him, laughing just a little at the way he shrinks back warily. Honestly, just like a cat.

“I never thought a Shinigami would be scared of a human.” Daichi smiles, raising his brows. He opens his hands, waiting. “I won’t bite.”

“I’m not afraid of _you_ ,” Kuroo grumbles, eyeing Daichi’s hand. “I’m afraid of the consequences that might arise _because_ of you.”

Despite looking like he’d rather be anywhere but here, Kuroo steps forward, lifts his hand hesitantly, and places it in the center of Daichi’s palm. He cannot feel Kuroo’s hand, and yet a cold chill runs up Daichi’s spine and goosebumps rise on his skin. It’s the strangest feeling of uncanniness, clearly seeing something there and not feeling anything at all. Kuroo has a look of awe on his face as he wraps his fingers around Daichi’s.

“You’re warm,” Kuroo says, soft, his mouth curving into a sad smile.

 

\--- 

 

“What happens? After.” Daichi is staring out the window again, at the great blue expanse of sky, the birds flying freely among the clouds. Kuroo looks up from where he is perched on the single chair beside Daichi’s bed.

“Well,” he says, pensive. “God judges your mortal life and if your soul is pure, then you get reincarnated. That is, if you so choose.”

“You have a choice?”

“Sure, some people don’t want to live again. So they just return to God’s grace.”

“And if your soul is not pure?”

“Then God returns it to nothingness.” Kuroo rests his chin on his palm, staring at Daichi thoughtfully. “Are you worried?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t had much of a chance to be a good person or a bad person. Just a sick person.”

Kuroo hums, drawing his knees up to his chest. They are an odd pair, a human and the Shinigami that will reap his soul, and yet Daichi feels strangely comfortable with Kuroo. He’s easy to talk to, and Daichi has very little people that he can really have a conversation with. The only person that is a constant in his life aside from the hospital staff is his mother, but Daichi tries to keep things simple in front of her- act like everything is just fine and that he isn’t sick or dying. But he is, and Kuroo doesn’t break down in tears when that fact is acknowledged. He’s a Shinigami, after all. He can’t afford to cry for every human soul he reaps.

“How did you become a Shinigami, then? Is that also a choice?”

The look on Kuroo’s face means that Daichi has asked something he shouldn’t have. But before Daichi can open his mouth to take it back, Kuroo is already speaking.

“I took my own life when I was a human.” Kuroo says, eyes glazing over. “That’s how you become a Shinigami.”

“Why?” Daichi asks, and perhaps it’s insensitive to ask such a question, but a burning nausea is rising at the back of his throat. For him, who has clung so desperately onto life for his entire hopeless existence, suicide is a concept that he cannot understand.

“I don’t even remember anymore. It was a long time ago.”

“So being a Shinigami, it’s a punishment?”

“No, it is an opportunity- to rediscover the beauty of life. Supposedly once we understand, we too can be reincarnated.” Kuroo sighs, slouching so as to bury his face in his arms. “Suicide is not a sin. It is a tragedy.”

Daichi reaches out to take Kuroo’s hand, and then it is silent.

 

* * *

 

 

**Day Two.**

 

Kuroo is surprisingly perky in the morning. He’s bouncing on the balls of his feet by Daichi’s bedside as soon as he wakes.

“Let’s go somewhere.” He says with a grin, offering his hand to Daichi.

“Uh,” It’s not to say that Daichi doesn’t trust Kuroo. He does, despite the obviously morbid nature of their relationship, but that trust is diminished a great deal when Daichi is still rubbing the sleep from his eyes. “How, exactly? I can’t walk more than a few hundred meters without having to sit down.”

“Silly, silly human.” Kuroo smirks, wagging a finger. “Have you forgotten who you’re talking to?”

 With a roll of his eyes, Daichi takes Kuroo’s hand, and suddenly it’s like he was dunked into ice cold water. The pain in his chest, all of his weariness is lifted from his person and he’s standing beside Kuroo despite his body slumping back against his pillow in a deep sleep.

“What is this?” His body is glowing, the same sort of shimmery ethereal-like property of the portal Kuroo had appeared out of.

“I pulled your soul out of your body. Now we can go anywhere we’d like.” Kuroo reaches out to touch the air in front of them and the same magical whirlpool opens up before his fingertips. “After you.”

“You’re not going to tell me where we’re going?”

“Nope.” The satisfied grin on Kuroo’s face makes Daichi suspicious. “You’re just going to have to trust me.”

And because Daichi may possibly be out of his mind, he sucks in a deep breath and steps through the shimmering portal. One second he is in the dreary hospital room in which he has spent a majority of his time, and the next he is standing in front of a roaring crowd, the sound of sneakers squeaking on a court, and the deafening impact of a ball off the palm of a hand.

“This is-” Daichi pauses to swallow, and though he doesn’t have a physical body at the moment, he swears something is lodged in his throat. “This is Chuo university.“

“Yep.” Kuroo is still grinning as he stands next to Daichi, hands shoved in his pockets. “I figured from that big poster you have that you like their volleyball team.”

There’s not a single wasted movement as the players call out for the ball. The setter is fast as lightning and deadly accurate as he sets up the perfect quick attack to the wing spiker, who leaps into the air and draws his arm back like a whip, slamming the ball past three blockers to the other side of the net. Daichi might have forgotten to breathe.

“It was my dream to attend Chuo ever since I saw one of their matches on TV as a child,” he says, barely a whisper. “I mean, it was hopeless from the beginning because-”

He doesn’t want to say it. He has never said it out loud, even after the doctors delivered the news, because both he and his mother had just quietly never mentioned Chuo or volleyball ever again. Kuroo takes Daichi’s hand in his, and now that he is a spirit too he can finally feel Kuroo’s touch but it is ice cold against the skin of his palm.

“This is amazing.” Is all Daichi says, clutching Kuroo’s hand like a lifeline. He is afraid for this to end, and whether he will admit it or not, he is afraid for tomorrow, even if he has had more than a decade of preparation. “Thank you, Kuroo.”

“You’re welcome.” Kuroo’s smile is kind as he gives Daichi’s hand a fond squeeze.

“Are you sure you’re allowed to do this?”

“I mean, I was never told that I _couldn’t_ do it, so…”

“Because there’s never been a human who could see you before?”

“Yep. You’re one of a kind.”

“I’m sure you say that to all the humans whose souls you’re about to take.”

“Only the ones with killer thighs like yours.” Kuroo says, fluttering his lashes.

Daichi laughs, giving Kuroo's leg a light kick. “Thanks. My secret is never working out and lying in a bed all day.”

It feels good, to go somewhere with a handsome guy and laugh and joke like this. As simple as it is, for Daichi, it is a first. He feels normal, almost, if he could forget everything but the sight before him and Kuroo steady at his side. For the rest of the match, Daichi excitedly explains the game to Kuroo, who is a fast learner and seems to get genuinely interested as time passes. When Chuo wins the match 2-0, Daichi doesn’t remember the last time he smiled so wide.

He is reluctant to leave, but as they step back into Daichi’s hospital room, his mother is there by his bedside peeling an apple. Kuroo lets go of Daichi’s hand and he is plunged back into his body, with it the weight of the living, the warmth, but also the pain and the weariness. He blinks his eyes open, letting out a small groan, and his mother smiles down at him.

“Good morning, it’s rare for you to sleep in so late.”

“I had an amazing dream.” Daichi says, smiling sleepily. “I was at one of Chuo’s volleyball matches. It was everything I thought it would be.”

Beside him, Kuroo is comically re-enacting a block, jumping up with his arms raised high. Then he crouches languidly into a low receive, doing a backwards somersault before propping himself up and imitating a cheering crowd. Daichi stifles a chuckle.

His mother looks sad, as she always does when he speaks of things like this. Happy things that healthy people can do, not just in their dreams.

“That’s nice, Daichi.” She tries, before her lips tremble and a tear falls from her eyes. He shouldn’t have said anything.

“Don’t cry, mom. It was a very happy dream.” He holds her hand as she cries. Tomorrow, he is going to hurt her. But after tomorrow, she can finally start to heal and move on. Daichi knows she is going to be okay. He doesn’t know anyone as strong as his own mother. “Thank you for all you’ve done for me.”

“Why are you talking like that?” She looks frenzied, looking up at him with big eyes. “You’re my son, and I will be taking care of you for a long time to come. Do you hear me?”

“Yea.” Daichi smiles, pulls her into a firm hug. She is shaking in his arms, trembling like a leaf. “But I wanted to say thank you anyway. I love you, mom.”

Kuroo curls his fingers into a tight fist looks away.

 

* * *

 

 

**Day Three.**

 

Even if Kuroo hadn’t appeared in his life foretelling his fate today, Daichi thinks he would have known that it was his time. There is no other way to interpret his wheezing breaths, the drowning dizziness, and the way exhaustion is blurring the edges of his vision. Kuroo is beside him, grief lining his features.

“T-this is it, right?” Daichi asks, feeling very distant.

“Yes.” Kuroo replies. “In a few minutes your blood pressure will bottom out, your organs will fail and you’ll be unconscious.”

“Okay.” Daichi swallows, clutches at Kuroo’s hand with shaking fingers. “You’ll stay?”

“I’m with you.” Kuroo smiles sadly. “Until the end.”

Outside, Daichi can hear the nurses speaking to his mother. There is nothing left to be done. It is his time. She’s wailing, and it’s the most terrible sound Daichi has ever heard in his life. Tears run down the sides of his face because despite thinking that he was prepared for this, it’s still incredibly, mortifyingly frustrating.

“I’m afraid.” He chokes out, gritting his teeth. “I thought I wouldn’t be, but I am.”

“It’d be weird if you weren’t.” Kuroo says, brushing a thumb across his cheek. “But you’re going to be reincarnated. I know you are, because you are _good_. And in your next life I swear to you, you will have a healthy heart and you can play all the volleyball you desire.”

“How can you be sure?”

“I’ll punch God in the face if need be.”

Daichi laughs weakly. “Are you allowed to say that?”

“Again, they never told me I couldn’t say it.”

“Will you be there?”

At this, Kuroo’s face crumples, and he is silent for a while before he speaks again.

“I hope so, Daichi.”

He knows that it’s time, because the room is spinning and everything is fading fast. Kuroo sighs, gives Daichi’s hand one last squeeze before touching his index finger to Daichi’s forehead and it’s the same sensation as the day before, of being plunged into ice cold water. But this time he knows he will not be returning to the warmth of the living.

Kuroo is still holding his hand, firm, and Daichi hopes that someday they can meet again when they are both human, because he wants to know what Kuroo’s hand would feel like against his, skin on skin, alive and breathing and together.

“Take care of me, okay Kuroo?”

His spirit is disintegrating, breaking apart into a million small speckles of light. They share one last smile before Daichi is gone, his spirit reduced to a single burning orb, glowing brighter than any other that Kuroo has seen.

“I will.” Kuroo whispers, cradling the orb in his hands. “I will.”

 

* * *

 

It’s a sunny spring day as Daichi and his team arrive at the Karasuno Sougou Sports Park. Today they are meeting their fated rivals, the Nekoma volleyball team, for a destined reunion. Karasuno is embodied by a murder of crows, ready to take flight once again and reclaim their rightful spot at nationals.

Daichi has always liked birds. They can soar above the clouds, take control of their own fates. Just as he can, just as his team will.

They form two lines, one clad in black, and one clad in bright red.

He and Nekoma’s captain stand facing each other.

“Greet your opponents! Let’s have a good game!”

The boy standing before him has piercing golden eyes and a head of messy black hair. Their eyes meet as they extend their hands simultaneously, enveloping each other and clutching on tightly.

Skin against skin.

Warm.


End file.
